Thrilling Chinese F1 2012

Different tyre strategies meant that the fastest cars had to over-take slower ones which were on two-stop strategies – this lead to a nail-biting and very closely fought Shanghai Grand Prix.

The move that Lewis Hamilton pulled off up the inside of turn 1 was just one of his spectacular over-takes throughout the race.

The other notable point was Webber finishing ahead of his team-mate – something that has been inevitable for two races beforehand.

Vettel’s inability to get anything else out of the RB8 than was there as standard meant that he was one of the slowest front-runners at the end, unable to put any challenge against his team-mate, as Vettel has already ruined his tyres and previously been unable to get any extra pace out of the car, as, for example, Alonso can famously do.

There are now 7 drivers with zero points: two drivers from the three new teams – and Massa.

Felipe Massa is a complete waste of space on the race circuit. All that he can do in an entire Grand Prix is try to delay Hamilton, before letting others (e.g. Webber) past with no fight.

If the sole purpose of his Formula 1 career is to fight a couple of personal battles on the track (when they are completely irrelevant to his actual race) and finish well down, then really, what is the point?

Continuing the theme of luck and skill in the F1 2012 review, this race:

Good luck:

It could be said that Rosberg benefited from Button’s pit-stop dilemma – but we’ll never know on that one.

Bad luck:

Did Button’s pit-stop delay cause him to lose a 1st place opportunity? It’s not clear-cut.

Schumacher had bad luck as the team mis-fitted his tyre.

Skill:

The McLaren team’s first pit-stop with Lewis was sensational. They timed it to perfection and executed it to the same level, meaning that he came out in a perfect place between two other front-runners. The driver’s own supreme over-taking ability saw him make moves on corners that no other driver tried on the day.